The invention relates to rod making machines of the tobacco processing industry in general, and more particularly to improvements in machines wherein one or more continuous rod-like fillers of tobacco or filter material for tobacco smoke are draped into discrete running webs of cigarette paper, tipping paper, imitation cork or any other suitable flexible strip-shaped wrapping material. Typical examples of machines to which the present invention pertains are cigarette rod making machines (e.g., of the type known as PROTOS produced and distributed by the assignee of the present application) and filter rod making machines which turn out filter rod sections of unit length or multiple unit length for admission into so-called tipping machines (e.g., machines known as MAX and also produced and distributed by the assignee of the present application) wherein the filter rod sections are united with plain cigarettes by employing adhesive-coated sections of tipping paper to form filter cigarettes of unit length or multiple unit length.
A cigarette rod making machine normally comprises at least one distributor which supplies tobacco particles for the forming of at least one continuous rod-like filler advancing with an endless belt conveyor toward a wrapping unit wherein successive increments of the filler are draped into successive increments of a running web of cigarette paper or other suitable flexible strip-shaped wrapping material. Successive increments of the web are draped around successive increments of the filler and the marginal portions of the thus draped web are bonded to each other to form a seam extending in parallelism with the axis of the resulting cigarette rod. The latter is thereupon conveyed through a so-called cutoff which severs the leader of the rod at desired intervals to form a file or row of plain cigarettes of unit length or multiple unit length.
A cigarette maker of the above outlined character can turn out a continuous rod-like filler for extended periods of time, e.g., during an entire shift. However, the relatively thin and weak web is likely to break from time to time even though it is or even though it can be drawn from a source in the form of a continuous strip, e.g., by splicing the leader of a fresh web to the trailing end of an expiring web when the supply of expiring web is about to be exhausted. If the continuously advanced web breaks, the leader of the next following portion of the web or the leader of a fresh web must be properly advanced to the wrapping station in order to ensure that successive increments of the fresh web will be properly draped around successive increments of the rod-like filler. Otherwise stated, the leader of a fresh web must be properly threaded into the wrapping unit in order to avoid the making of a long series of unacceptable rod-shaped smokers' products whenever the leader of a fresh web is being advanced toward the path for the rod-like filler.
The wrapping unit in a cigarette maker or in a filter rod making machine normally comprises an endless belt which is known as garniture and forms part of the means for draping successive increments of the web around successive increments of the filler while the filler and the web advance at the same speed and in the same direction through the wrapping station of the rod maker. Problems arise if the leader of a fresh web cannot find its way into the wrapping unit, i.e., into engagement with the garniture to be properly entrained during draping around the adjacent increments of the filler.